Buckshot

Gage's Midnighter isn't the walking slaughterhouse (at first) that we've come to know and love, but that's not a bad thing. I loved the way everything went. Even when Midnighter is being shown in a different light, he retains all the dark humor and ultraviolence that he's known for. When Jack Hawksmoor sends Midnighter to get in touch with his human side and act like a normal hero for once, he gives it a genuine effort, but the world he lives in takes over and a simple errand turns into a fight against cyborgs and a mad scientist with drops of We 3 thrown in for good measure. Even adopting a pet like a normal person is done in the most bizarre way possible. The writing, both the dialog and the plot itself, were excellent. The art was a little weird but I didn't mind. I like the self-contained stories that have been in this series and I think this one is the best so far.

No, it's not stapled wrong. Thats what I thought when I first got Midnighter #7. I opened it up and I'm greeted with "The End." I read a few more pages and figured out what was going on. I had to really stop and think, do I want to read backwards like they wanted me to, or should I read it in order? I chickened out and flipped to the end. At the end/beginning I read, "Hi, I'm Midnighter. I already know exactly how this story ends." With that I was forced to go back to the beginning and read it from finish to start. It was a little bit of a challenge, mostly because even though it's backwards, you still read down. It felt more like I was reading it out of order than just reading it backwards; reversing the order of the panels on the page would have helped, but whatever, I got through it and got what they were trying to do. The layout and transitions even got better at the end, probably because there was more dialogue there so it was necessary to make it so it could be read easily both ways.

The story wasn't great. In fact, without the reverse-order thing, this is probably the worst story I've ever read. An antagonist so simple that not only can her entire scheme be summed up in two word balloons, but she doesn't even get a name. That's perfectly okay though, because it's not about the story. It's all about the gimmick. The purpose of this issue is to explain Midnighter's powers, his ability to predict what his opponent is going to do. I think that's done very well. He sees all the possible outcomes, picks the one he wants, then works backwards to get there from where he is now. It was interesting being along for the ride as the process happened. It was almost like "A Day in the Mind of Midnighter," but this was only one of the many possible scenarios. I think I might start reading more stories backwards.

Or maybe not.